"All right, this is not something you should worry about."
The Heavenly Physician shook his head slightly.
"Knowing too much won't do you any good either."
"Being able to detect that spatial fluctuation and find this infected person shows you have decent ability."
"Focus on studying the jade slip I gave you. It is vastly superior to the half-baked legacy from Tianjue and the others."
The Heavenly Physician grumbled a few more words.
"Don't run around recklessly if you have no reason to. This Xuanhuang Realm isn't as safe as it seems."
Leaving behind that final remark, before Li Fan could respond, the Heavenly Physician's figure vanished into thin air.
Only his voice lingered, echoing continuously.
Li Fan stood upright in the room, not daring to let his taut nerves unwind.
Still maintaining an empty, thoughtless state of mind, he quietly departed Qinghuang Province as though nothing had happened.
Only after returning to the Spirit Wood Realm and ensuring absolute safety did Li Fan finally relax completely.
"Though this unexpected encounter with the Heavenly Physician came out of nowhere, fortunately..."
"I bet right!"
Li Fan's eyes flickered, and he let out a long breath.
Indeed, while the confrontation with the Heavenly Physician had seemed remarkably smooth and devoid of danger, Li Fan had actually been gambling!
He was gambling that the Heavenly Physician was ultimately a good person!
At the very least, that his attitude would be different toward a cultivator who shared the same lineage!
Based on the scenes and dialogue from the Heavenly Physician's battle against Tianjue and the Master, Li Fan had deduced that the tragic extermination of Cloud Water Heavenly Palace back then might truly not have been the Heavenly Physician's doing.
It might all have been a misunderstanding.
And evidently, the mad Tianjue seeking revenge against the Heavenly Physician was not a first-time occurrence.
Yet the Heavenly Physician, who was capable of killing Tianjue in an instant, had never dealt a fatal blow to either Tianjue or the Master.
...
All of this suggested that matters were likely just as the Heavenly Physician had claimed.
Therefore, the moment Li Fan saw the Heavenly Physician, he had unleashed the Five Elements Annihilation Sword infused with Heaven Fiend Sword Intent, followed by Qin Tang's signature technique, the Cloud Water Illusory Dream Technique, to attack him.
It was all to disguise himself as Tianjue's successor, burdened with the mission of seeking vengeance against the Heavenly Physician.
If the Heavenly Physician was truly benevolent at heart, just as he appeared to be, then when facing someone who was very likely the sole surviving junior successor in the Xuanhuang Realm, he certainly would not harm Li Fan.
Even if Li Fan spoke insolently, it would be the same.
And the truth...
Turned out just as Li Fan had anticipated!
Not only did the Heavenly Physician not take offense, he had even taken the initiative to bestow a golden jade slip!
"This is what they mean by 'a gentleman can be duped through proper pretense'!"
Recalling the psychological shadow of the past, only to deceive him so effortlessly this time, Li Fan could not help feeling rather pleased with himself.
Of course, the primary reason the deception went so smoothly was that Li Fan had already known beforehand about the Heavenly Physician's ability of "Looking, Listening, Questioning, and Feeling the Pulse."
While Li Fan was putting on his act, his inner thoughts had also matched the "script."
Superlative as the Heavenly Physician's prowess was, he would never have imagined that he had stepped right into Li Fan's trap from the very beginning!
Utterly confident in his own diagnostic abilities, the Heavenly Physician had made an error in judgment due to Li Fan's deliberate misdirection!
Replaying the recent encounter in his mind several times, Li Fan felt increasingly self-satisfied.
Last time, he had been exposed before the Heavenly Physician, narrowly escaping with his life through True Reversion.
Now, after reincarnating across multiple lifetimes, though his strength still could not compare to the other party's, he was able to successfully deceive him.
This alone demonstrated the immense progress he had made!
"As long as I am given a bit more time, confronting the Heavenly Physician head-on won't necessarily be out of reach!"
However, recalling the Heavenly Physician's performance when Li Fan tested him earlier, Li Fan still frowned slightly.
Though it had only been an act, those hundred-plus beams of the Great Five Elements Oblivion Sword had held nothing back.
They were almost his full-power strikes without activating his Soul Burning state.
Yet such an onslaught had been effortlessly neutralized by the Heavenly Physician.
Li Fan could not even tell what method the Heavenly Physician had used to knead the oblivion swords into a sphere.
"And then there is that 'illness'..."
Li Fan's expression turned solemn.
An illness capable of causing the spirit soul to wither away, formless and intangible.
The Heavenly Physician's visit had evidently been to deal with the illness carried by Han Zhong.
Running into Li Fan had been purely coincidental.
"Perhaps this also explains why the Han Zhong incident caused no waves at all in the previous life."
"Because the Heavenly Physician handled everything in secret."
"If that illness were allowed to spread, it might have affected the entire Xuanhuang Realm. Looking at it this way, could the Heavenly Physician truly be a righteous figure?"
Li Fan stroked his chin.
"If so, that is actually good news for me. The more righteous he is, the lower the risk of interacting with him."
"As long as I don't expose the existence of True Reversion."
"I might even be able to reap some benefits from him."
Thoughts churned constantly in Li Fan's mind.
This discovery left him quite exhilarated.
With a major hidden concern resolved, Li Fan was already beginning to scheme how to maximize the value of this new finding.
"Right, the Heavenly Physician also mentioned earlier that the intangible bubble that carried Han Zhong outside the Xuanhuang Realm was an Eye of the Tian Beast?"
"Capable of observing the void near the Xuanhuang Realm, and anyone inside it doesn't even age..."
"As expected of the Profound Heaven Sect's handiwork."
...
Only after a long while did Li Fan's churning thoughts finally settle.
He composed his emotions.
After pondering for a moment, he retrieved the golden jade slip bestowed by the Heavenly Physician.
Its dignified, magnificent aura even affected the spirit tree not far above the secluded cultivation chamber.
Its branches and leaves swayed without any wind.
Li Fan's heart tightened. After pondering for quite a while, he finally decided to separate a wisp of divine sense and send it into the golden jade slip.
*Boom!*
Countless pieces of information flooded Li Fan's mind in an instant.
"Mending the Heavens Record?"
Li Fan pressed his throbbing temples. As he skimmed the contents recorded within the jade slip, his expression grew somewhat peculiar.
The author of the *Mending the Heavens Record* was undoubtedly the Heavenly Physician.
The record posited that as the Heavenly Dao operated, it was very likely that over time, it would become like a human body and develop all sorts of illnesses.
When that happened, the Heavenly Dao would need to be treated.
Yet how difficult was it to heal the Heavenly Dao?
Man is the spirit of Heaven and Earth, and the human body reflects a portion of the principles of Heaven and Earth.
Therefore, to heal Heaven, one must first heal man.
A large portion of the first half of the *Mending the Heavens Record* was dedicated to explaining how to heal all kinds of living beings in Heaven and Earth, including humanity.
If the *Heavenly Physician Immortal Scripture* that Li Fan had read before was an encyclopedia introducing myriad species, then the first half of the *Mending the Heavens Record* was an expansion upon the *Heavenly Physician Immortal Scripture*—the concrete application of medical art to all living species under Heaven and Earth.
And once one could adeptly heal all things in the world, one could advance to the next stage.
And that was Healing Heaven!
The prerequisite for healing the Heavenly Dao was being as familiar with it as one was with the human body, coupled with possessing the power to reshape Heaven and Earth.
Chapter 912